The
WartburgWartburg is a castle originally built in the Middle Ages. It is
situated on a 410 meters (1,350 ft) precipice to the southwest
of, and overlooking the town of Eisenach, in the state of Thuringia,
Germany. In 1999,
UNESCOUNESCO added
WartburgWartburg Castle to the World Heritage
List. It was the home of St. Elisabeth of Hungary, the place where
Martin LutherMartin Luther translated the
New TestamentNew Testament of the Bible into German,
the site of the
Wartburg festivalWartburg festival of 1817 and the supposed setting for
the possibly legendary Sängerkrieg. It was an important inspiration
for
Ludwig IILudwig II when he decided to build Neuschwanstein Castle. Wartburg
is the most-visited tourist attraction in
ThuringiaThuringia after Weimar.
Although the castle today still contains substantial original
structures from the 12th through 15th centuries, much of the interior
dates back only to the 19th century.

Contents

1 Etymology
2 Location
3 History
4 Architecture

4.1 Palas
4.2 Other structures

5 Today
6 Legacy
7 Notes
8 External links

Etymology[edit]
The name of the castle is probably derived from German: Warte, a
watchtower, in spite of a tradition which holds that the castle's
founder, on first laying eyes on the site, exclaimed, "Warte, Berg --
du sollst mir eine Burg tragen!" ("Wait, mountain -- you shall bear my
castle!").[1] It is a German play on words for mountain (Berg) and
fortress (Burg). In addition,
Louis the SpringerLouis the Springer is said to have had
clay from his lands transported to the top of the hill, which was not
quite within his lands, so he might swear that the castle was built on
his soil.
Location[edit]

WartburgWartburg is located on a 410 meters (1,350 ft) precipice to the
southwest of, and overlooking the town of Eisenach, in the state of
Thuringia, Germany. The hill is an extension of Thuringian Forest,
overlooking Mariental to the south-east and the valley of the Hörsel
to the north, through which passed the historical Via Regia.[2]:149
The
RennsteigRennsteig passes not far to the south of the castle.
History[edit]

The castle's foundation was laid about 1067 by the Thuringian count of
Schauenburg,
Louis the SpringerLouis the Springer ( Ludwig der Springer ), a relative of
the Counts of Rieneck in Franconia. Together with its larger sister
castle Neuenburg in the present-day town of Freyburg, the Wartburg
secured the extreme borders of his traditional territories.[3]
The castle was first mentioned in a written document in 1080 by Bruno,
Bishop of Merseburg, in his De Bello Saxonico ("The Saxon War") as
Wartberg.[4]
During the Investiture Controversy, Louis's henchmen attacked a
military contingent of King Henry IV of Germany. The count remained a
fierce opponent of the Salian rulers, and upon the extinction of the
line, his son Louis I was elevated to the rank of a
LandgraveLandgrave in
ThuringiaThuringia by the new German king Lothair of Supplinburg in 1131.
From 1172 to 1211, the
WartburgWartburg was one of the most important princes'
courts in the German Reich. Hermann I supported poets like Walther von
der Vogelweide and
Wolfram von EschenbachWolfram von Eschenbach who wrote part of his
ParzivalParzival here in 1203.[2]:149
The castle thus became the setting for the legendary Sängerkrieg, or
Minstrels' Contest[4] in which such
MinnesängerMinnesänger as Walther von der
Vogelweide,[5] Wolfram von Eschenbach,[6] Albrecht von Halberstadt
(the translator of Ovid) and many others supposedly took part in
1206/1207. The legend of this event was later used by Richard Wagner
in his opera Tannhäuser.
At the age of four, St.
Elisabeth of HungaryElisabeth of Hungary was sent by her mother to
the
WartburgWartburg to be raised to become consort of
LandgraveLandgrave Ludwig IV of
Thuringia. From 1211 to 1228, she lived in the castle and was renowned
for her charitable work. In 1221, Elisabeth married Ludwig. In 1227,
Ludwig died on the Crusade and she followed her confessor Father
Konrad to Marburg. Elisabeth died there in 1231 at the age of 24 and
was canonized as a saint of the
Roman Catholic ChurchRoman Catholic Church just five years
after her death.[4][7][8]:4
In 1247, Heinrich Raspe, the last landgrave of
ThuringiaThuringia of his line
and an anti-king of Germany, died at the Wartburg.[4] He was succeeded
by Henry III, Margrave of Meissen.
In 1320, substantial reconstruction work was done after the castle had
been damaged in a fire caused by lightning in 1317 or 1318. A chapel
was added to the Palas.[8]:15,18
The
WartburgWartburg remained the seat of the Thuringian landgraves until
1440.
From May 1521 to March 1522,
Martin LutherMartin Luther stayed at the castle under
the name of
Junker JörgJunker Jörg (the Knight George), after he had been taken
there for his safety at the request of
Frederick the WiseFrederick the Wise following
his excommunication by
Pope Leo XPope Leo X and his refusal to recant at the
Diet of Worms. It was during this period that Luther translated the
New TestamentNew Testament from ancient Greek into German in just ten weeks.[4]
Luther's was not the first German translation of the Bible but it
quickly became the most well known and most widely circulated.
From 1540 until his death in 1548, Fritz Erbe (de), an Anabaptist
farmer from Herda, was held captive in the dungeon of the south tower,
because he refused to abjure anabaptism. After his death, he was
buried in the
WartburgWartburg near the chapel of St. Elisabeth.[9] In 1925, a
handwritten signature of Fritz Erbe was found on the prison wall.
Over the next centuries, the castle fell increasingly into disuse and
disrepair, especially after the end of the
Thirty Years' WarThirty Years' War when it
had served as a refuge for the ruling family.[8]:7
In 1777,
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheJohann Wolfgang von Goethe stayed at the
WartburgWartburg for five
weeks, making various drawings of the buildings.[4]
On 18 October 1817, the first
Wartburg festivalWartburg festival took place. About 500
students, members of the newly founded German Burschenschaften
("fraternities"), came together at the castle to celebrate the German
victory over Napoleon four years before and the 300th anniversary of
the Reformation, condemn conservatism and call for German unity under
the motto "Honour - Freedom - Fatherland".[4] Speakers at the event
included Heinrich Hermann Riemann, a veteran of the Lützow Free
Corps, the philosophy student Ludwig Rödiger, and Hans Ferdinand
Massmann.
With the permission of the absent chaplain Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, the
Code NapoléonCode Napoléon and other books were burned 'in effigy': instead of the
costly volumes, scraps of parchment with the titles of conservative
books (including August von Kotzebue's History of the German Empires)
were placed on the bonfire. Karl Ludwig Sand, who would assassinate
Kotzebue two years later, was among the participants.
This event and a similar gathering at
WartburgWartburg during the Revolutions
of 1848 are considered seminal moments in the movement for German
unification.
During the rule of the House of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Grand Duke Karl
Alexander ordered the reconstruction of
WartburgWartburg in 1838. The lead
architect was Hugo von Ritgen (de), for whom it became a life's
work. In fact, it was finished only a year after his death in 1889.[4]
Drawing on a suggestion by Goethe that the
WartburgWartburg would serve well
as a museum, Maria Pavlovna and her son Karl Alexander also founded
the art collection ( Kunstkammer ) that became the nucleus of today's
museum.[8]:24–28
The reign of the House of Saxe-Weimar-
EisenachEisenach ended in the German
Revolution in 1918. In 1922, the
WartburgWartburg Stiftung (Wartburg
Foundation) was established to ensure the castle's maintenance.[4]
After the end of World War II, Soviet occupation forces took the
renowned collection of weapons and armour. Its whereabouts still
remain unknown.[8]:10 The Rüstkammer (de) (the armoury) of the
WartburgWartburg used to contain a notable collection of about 800 pieces,
from the splendid armour of King Henry II of France, to the items of
Frederick the Wise, Pope
Julius IIJulius II and Bernhard von Weimar. All these
objects were taken by the Soviet Occupation Army in 1946 and have
disappeared in the Soviet Union. Two helmets, two swords, a prince's
and a boy's armour, however, were found in a temporary store at the
time and a few pieces were given back by the
USSRUSSR in the 1960s. The
new Russian Government has been petitioned to help locate the missing
treasures.
Under communist rule during the time of the
GDRGDR extensive
reconstruction took place in 1952-54. In particular, much of the palas
was restored to its original Romanesque style.[4] A new stairway was
erected next to the palas.[8]:24
In 1967, the castle was the site of celebrations of the GDR's national
jubilee, the 900th anniversary of the Wartburg's foundation, the 450th
anniversary of the beginning of Luther's
ReformationReformation and the 150th
anniversary of the
WartburgWartburg Festival.[8]:29
On June 13, 1980,
DevoDevo performed at the castle during their Freedom of
Choice tour.
In 1983, it was the central point of the celebrations on account of
the 500th birthday of Martin Luther.[8]:29
Architecture[edit]

The largest structure of the
WartburgWartburg is the Palas, originally built
in late Romanesque style between 1157 and 1170.[2]:150 It is
considered the best-preserved non-ecclesial Romanesque building north
of the Alps.[8]:11
The
PalasPalas features rooms like the Rittersaal and the Speisesaal which
have been reconstructed as closely as possible to the original
Romanesque style and which contain original structures (pillars or
roof elements). However, many of the rooms mostly reflect the tastes
of the 19th and 20th centuries and the image of the Middle Ages
prevalent at the time: the Elisabeth-Kemenate was fitted with mosaics
showing the life of St. Elisabeth (created in 1902-06) on behalf of
Kaiser Wilhelm II, the Sängersaal (with frescoes of the Sängerkrieg
by Moritz von Schwind) and the Festssaal on the top floor. The latter
also features frescoes by Schwind (on the triumph of Christianity) and
served as the inspiration for the Sängerhalle at Neuschwanstein
Castle.[2]:150[8]:24 The Wartburg's Sängersaal is the setting for Act
II of Tannhäuser. None of the wallpaintings, including those in the
Landgrafenzimmer or the Elisabethengalerie, are actually medieval in
origin, but were created in the 19th century.[8]:19–24
Other structures[edit]
The drawbridge and barbican offer the only access to the castle and
have been largely unchanged since medieval times.[2]:150
Vorburg is the area immediately inside the first gate. It dates to the
14th/15th century and is made up of several half-timbered buildings:
the Elisabethengang (covered walkway), the Vogtei (Bailiff's lodge),
the Margarethengang (covered walkway) and the Ritterhaus (Knights'
House).[2]:150
The Lutherstube in the Vogtei, where
Martin LutherMartin Luther stayed when he was
in the castle, also features paintings by Lucas Cranach.[2]:150
The Bergfried (donjon) was completed in 1859 and sits on the
foundations of a medieval keep. It is topped by a landmark
3-metre-tall cross (de).[2]:150
The Neue Kemenate (New Bower, 1853-1860) today exhibits the art
treasures of the Wartburgsammlung, like paintings by Lucas Cranach the
Elder and sculptures from the workshop of Tilman
Riemenschneider.[2]:150
The Romanesque Südturm or South Tower was built in 1318. Together
with the
PalasPalas it is the oldest part of the castle. A dungeon is
located below.[2]:150
In 1999,
UNESCOUNESCO added
WartburgWartburg Castle to the
World Heritage ListWorld Heritage List as an
"Outstanding Monument of the Feudal Period in Central Europe", citing
its "Cultural Values of Universal Significance".[10]
For a while, the status of
WartburgWartburg as a World Heritage site was
endangered by plans to build very tall wind turbines on Milmesberg
near Marksuhl. However, in November 2013, the investor agreed not to
build the turbines and a regional planning update has banned such
structures within sight of
WartburgWartburg in the future.[11]
Today[edit]
WartburgWartburg is a popular tourist destination, the most-visited site in
ThuringiaThuringia after Weimar.[2]:148 It is accessible to visitors and guided
tours offer access to the interior of the buildings. In addition,
there is a museum in the castle. Children can ride donkeys up the
hill. The Festsaal is used regularly for staging the opera
Tannhäuser, as well as concerts and other events. There is also a
hotel, located right next to the castle, originally built during the
castle's reconstruction in the 19th century.[12]
Bill Clinton, 42nd president of the United States of America, visited
the
WartburgWartburg castle (as well as the Bach House, May 14, 1998 during
his state visit to Germany. "On this beautiful Thuringian day in the
spring, we are bathed in the light and the warmth of freedom."
Legacy[edit]
For centuries, the
WartburgWartburg has been a place of pilgrimage for many
people from within and outside Germany, for its significance in German
history and in the development of Christianity. Several places
(especially US towns founded by Lutherans) and a local brand of
automobile have been named after the Wartburg.
Wartburg CollegeWartburg College in
Iowa, United States, is named in commemoration of Martin Luther's
receiving refuge at the castle and because of the college's forest
location and its Thuringian heritage.[13]
WartburgWartburg Theological
Seminary, also located in
IowaIowa was named in commemoration of Wartburg
Castle.
The
WartburgkreisWartburgkreis is named after the castle, although
WartburgWartburg is
located outside the district. Eisenach, originally part of the
district, became kreisfrei ("district-free") in 1998.
Notes[edit]

For official site names, see each article or the List of World
Heritage Sites in Germany.

Northern

Fagus FactoryFagus Factory in Alfeld
Berlin Modernism Housing Estates
Museumsinsel (Museum Island), Berlin
Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin
Town Hall and Roland on the Marketplace of Bremen
Mines of Rammelsberg, Historic Town of
GoslarGoslar and Upper Harz Water
Management System
SpeicherstadtSpeicherstadt and Kontorhaus District with
ChilehausChilehaus in Hamburg
St. Mary's Cathedral and St. Michael's Church at Hildesheim
Hanseatic City of Lübeck
Historic Centres of
StralsundStralsund and Wismar